Presto Phoenix Inc., which provides a voice AI solution for QSR drive-thrus, has raised $10 million from Remus Capital-affiliated investors and other existing investors. The capital will be used to expand deployments, technology, and customer impact. The round follows Presto's recent integration with Toast and other AI partners including ElevenLabs and Bluejay, and continued expansion of deployments with existing and new QSR customers.
On September 24, the State Council Information Office held a press conference under the "Starting the 15th Five-Year Plan" series. Miao Muyang, Director of the Industry Development Department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period the ministry will advance deep integration of culture, tourism and technology, deepen digital and intelligent technology applications, and focus on three areas: technological innovation, scenario application and standards development. Measures include supporting R&D of key technologies such as extended reality and intelligent interaction, building high-quality industry datasets, deploying AI application pilots, stre…
The 2026 China International Fair for Trade in Services showcased the latest smart tourism achievements, with AI accelerating integration into cultural tourism. Yili Grassland Dairy Culture Tourism Scenic Area uses digital cows, XR panoramic roaming, and AR interaction for immersive industrial tourism, receiving over 940,000 visitors this year as of August, with average family stay extended to 4.5 hours. Dalian Xiongdong Street's AI bionic giant bear 'Beibei' attracted about 1.73 million visitors in the past year. Shanghai's 'Huxiaoyou' city life agent has served over 20 million users. Fujian Piaofutong's multimodal AI companion service has served 3.5 million tourists, with an active usage…
The Xixia Tombs were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List at the 47th session in Paris on 11 July 2025, becoming China's 60th World Heritage site. Over the past year, the site has enhanced visitor experiences through VR/XR immersive projects, VAR smart viewing telescopes, digital cultural products and an immersive scripted tour. Data show about one million visitors in 2025, up roughly 30% year on year, and 450,000 visitors in the first half of 2026, up 102% year on year, with out-of-province visitors accounting for 92%.
Pilot Company is installing 156 self-order kiosks across 78 Wendy's locations in its North American travel centers as part of broader digital initiatives. Pilot is a franchisee of several quick-service brands including Arby's and Subway. Gemma Patterson, senior director of restaurant relations and e-commerce at Pilot, said bringing digital platforms into travel centers aims to enhance convenience, improve speed of service and create a more consistent guest experience. HT's 2026 Restaurant Technology Study found the share of operators with "no plans to add kiosks" rose from 52.8% to 68%, though this may reflect a natural shift in the adoption cycle. HT's forthcoming 2026 Guest Engagement Stu…
Guilin Shihua Yulong Scenic Area introduces a 'smart brain' system, improving management efficiency and service quality through smart ticketing, rafter supervision, and big data platforms. In 2025, it distributed 2.6588 million yuan in star rating rewards, and in the first half of 2026, revenue grew 9.41% year-on-year.
The 2026 TravelDaily Summit will be held on September 22-23 at the Shanghai International Convention Center, featuring a main forum, accommodation summit, and business travel digital summit, with over 100 industry leaders and 30+ topics, expecting 1800+ senior attendees.
TravelDaily Research Institute released its annual report 'Tides Rise in the East: China Business Travel Without Limits', indicating the market has moved past recovery into high-quality development. The report reveals a 'dumbbell' spending structure with ground transport at 44%, and digitalization is eliminating reimbursement pain points.
The article states that the value of corporate expense control systems is expanding from 'reducing employee forms' to 'seeing every expense clearly', emphasizing that building expense control is not just replacing reimbursement software but restructuring the expense management chain. It proposes covering pre-application, consumption, invoice processing, audit risk control, payment posting, and electronic archiving, and advises companies to start with scenario mapping, prepare real samples, and establish operations.
WiT's latest report shows that in 2025, 72% of rail bookings in APAC are made online, with state-owned operators retaining most traffic through their own apps. Car rental online penetration is only 47%, but expected to surpass offline by 2027. OTAs like Trip.com and Klook are integrating direct rail APIs and expanding bundling. AI is increasingly used in booking, such as Booking.com's ChatGPT-based car rental helper.
Rosewood Hotel Group has appointed former Accenture executive Kenny Toy as global SVP of commercial, leading sales, marketing, distribution, revenue management, partnerships, and e-commerce. He will report to COO Anthony Ingham and be based in Hong Kong. Toy spent nearly a decade as managing director at Accenture Song, with experience in digital transformation and customer experience.
This article focuses on the characteristics of travel management for large enterprises, analyzes industry status and hot topics, introduces Fenbeitong's core capabilities and differentiated advantages, and demonstrates its value in cost reduction, efficiency improvement, and compliance control through practical cases.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that the 2026 Cargo Experts Conference will take place in Budapest on 23-24 September, under the theme 'From Expertise to Execution'. The conference will feature three tracks: Digital Cargo (advancing ONE Record, APIs, AI), Safety & Security (dangerous goods, lithium batteries), and Pharma & Cargo Operations (cold chain, compliance).
The article notes that while hospitality has invested in customer-facing tech, back-office operations like purchasing, inventory, invoicing, and labor planning remain manual. Digitizing the operational backbone through integrated purchasing, inventory, AP automation, and daily insights can significantly improve margins. The author emphasizes that intelligence lies in connected data flows, enabling managers to act before issues hit the P&L.
On August 11, Hubei Culture & Tourism Group and Hubei Radio & TV Network held a 'Culture & Tourism + Broadcasting' business integration meeting, focusing on deep integration of broadcasting network resources with culture and tourism scenarios, establishing daily communication and coordination mechanisms to promote cooperation across the province.
The article discusses the shift from cash to digital tip payouts in hospitality. Employees expect more transparent and faster access to earnings, and digital tip management offers security controls, audit trails, and encryption. Hotel technology leaders need to be involved in evaluating tip payment systems, considering security, compliance, and integration. Digital tip management reduces cash handling risks, improves operational efficiency, and meets employee expectations.
BCD Travel success story: A top 10 global pharmaceutical company deployed the Tripsource platform to achieve a unified booking experience for 35,000+ users across 60 markets in a strictly regulated environment. Online adoption increased from 65% to 77%, rail bookings online rose from about 60% to 83%, and average booking time fell below five minutes. The platform integrates GDS, NDC, low-cost carriers, rail, and hotel content, while supporting compliance tracking and transfer-of-value reporting.
Phocuswright reports Germany's travel gross bookings reached €76.3 billion in 2025, up 5%, making it Europe's largest outbound market. Despite two years of GDP contraction and geopolitical disruption, Germans redirected to Southern Europe. The report projects ~4% annual growth from 2027 if Middle East conflict eases. Germany is increasingly digital: 77% of trips include at least one online booking, and 17% use AI for travel planning.
Research by Phocuswright and Arival shows the tours and activities sector is projected to reach $340 billion by 2029, but only a third of bookings occur online. At ITB Berlin panel, experts from Civitatis, Expedia Group, and Nezasa discussed AI's role in normalizing data, driving digitalization, and empowering small operators.
According to a joint report by Phocuswright and Arival, the in-destination experiences market reached $271 billion in 2025, surpassing pre-pandemic levels, and is projected to exceed $340 billion by 2029. Online channels grew from 17% of bookings in 2019 to 33% in 2025, with a projected 42% by 2029. OTAs are the fastest-growing channel, but the sector remains under-digitized.
Amadeus and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) formalized a Memorandum of Understanding in support of ICAO's "No Country Left Behind" (NCLB) goal. The partnership seeks to enhance States' capacity to adopt advanced digital technologies that improve the efficiency, safety, and sustainability of international air transport systems. Focus areas include capacity-building and technical assistance to states, promoting biometrics interoperability consistent with ICAO Doc 9303 and the TRIP Roadmap, and training programs on digital identity and biometrics. Initial NCLB deliverables are expected in the first half of 2026.
On December 15, 2025, Ctrip Corporate Travel and DerbySoft announced completion of phase one of a new corporate travel RFP (negotiated-rate sourcing) solution and signed a strategic cooperation agreement. The solution uses travel data visualization and intelligent analysis to automatically recommend target cities and hotels. Companies and hotel suppliers can log in through Ctrip Corporate Travel's existing entry point to view and handle quotes, while the system is deeply connected with a ticketing platform to synchronize and track RFP status in real time. The new architecture allows RFP setup and hotel configuration to be completed within one working day, with a hotel response rate of 99.7%…
Ji Chengzhou, Chief Product Officer of Ctrip Corporate Travel, spoke at the Boao CEO Innovation Business Forum in Boao, Hainan, sharing the company's global expansion and AI-driven digital management practices. Ctrip Corporate Travel's outbound strategy stems from the growing internationalization needs of Chinese enterprises; it has established localized service capabilities in more than 30 countries, providing one-stop travel management support covering itinerary, settlement and compliance for Chinese companies going global. Ji said going global is not simply replicating the domestic model but requires deep understanding of local markets. Noting the relatively low level of technology integ…
A SAP Concur blog post argues that meaningful productivity gains happen at the organizational level through efficient systems and the right tools, not by focusing on individual employees. It cites McKinsey data that more than half of surveyed employees say they are relatively unproductive, potentially costing a company $228 million to $355 million a year. The post outlines how T&E tools boost organizational productivity through digitization (ExpenseIt receipt capture), automation (Concur Request approvals, Verify audits), and integration to eliminate data silos.
This SAP Concur blog discusses how digital tax solutions help businesses navigate global tax digitalization. It notes that the UK, China, Brazil, and other countries already require tax digitalization, and businesses can use AI to capture receipts, establish compliance audit trails, increase VAT reclaim, and identify taxable benefits.
An IDC report shows SAP maintained the No. 1 ranking in the 2022 travel and expense management software market with 49.4% share, $1.281 billion in revenue, and 16.3% year-over-year growth. It also cites the 2023 Global Business Travel Survey finding that 67% of global business travelers are very willing to travel for work in the next 12 months, and a 30% increase in U.S. airline passengers between 2021 and 2022.
SAP Concur partnered with B2B payments expert TransferMate to release a business continuity plan whitepaper and template. The article notes that unexpected disruptions such as floods, tornadoes, snowstorms, cyberattacks or sales spikes can have ruinous effects on operations and the bottom line. By crafting and testing a business continuity plan, companies can build remote work processes, advance digital solutions and stress-test systems and vendors to respond to unforeseen events more comprehensively.
A survey by SAP Concur of 3,500 European business and finance leaders reveals complex challenges in VAT reclaim. 76% of companies reclaim VAT in up to 10 countries, but the pandemic has caused regulatory changes and reduced reclaimable amounts. Only 14% prioritized reclaiming outstanding VAT. The survey also found that four in ten companies process expense claims slower than before, and nearly half still rely on paper-based evidence.
A SAP Concur blog post notes that business travel decisions are typically optimized for cost and time efficiency, not environmental sustainability, and many organizations still use paper-based booking and expense processes. IOFM found the average business receives 63% of invoices as paper, and 62% manually handle over 75% of paper invoices. APQC research shows finance workers spend 49% of their time processing transactions. The article recommends digitalization and automation to reduce environmental impact, citing NEC's case: reduced T&E management time by 40% and saved about $1.8 million annually with SAP Concur.
SAP Concur published a blog post emphasizing the importance of digitalizing travel and expense (T&E) processes. The article notes that the financial services industry still relies on paper processes and manual expense reports, leading to delayed data, poor budget visibility, and negative impacts on employee satisfaction and talent recruitment. By automating T&E processes, companies can collect and connect spending data in real time, improve compliance, and enhance the employee experience. The article also covers digital features like mobile experience, e-receipts, and brand choice.
SAP Concur cites an Aberdeen survey of 606 finance leaders across 27 industries and six countries, finding best-in-class businesses capture 74% of company spend with digital expense and invoice management solutions (vs. 57% for others) and can access spend data when needed 80% of the time (vs. 61% for others). Best-in-class respondents reported 26.1% productivity improvement and 24.3% profitability improvement over the past two years, compared to -2.4% and -1.7% for others. Best-in-class companies are 31% more likely to use spend data to track and manage budgets and more likely to integrate expense and invoice management tools with budgeting, payroll, ERP, and financial systems.
SAP Concur cites a May 2021 Oxford Economics survey of over 500 senior business leaders across seven countries, finding increasing agility is the top goal but culture change and digitizing manual operations remain challenges. Among businesses that digitized expense, invoice, and cash flow management, 43% cite increased agility and resiliency from digitizing AP, 42% cite increased productivity from digitizing expenses, and 35% cite increased functional collaboration from digitizing cash flow management. AMI-Partners research found SMBs saved $30K annually with automated expense solutions and $34K with invoice solutions; Concur customers saved $39K annually with each solution. ACFE estimates…
A SAP Concur blog post, citing the 2022 ACFE Anti-Fraud Technology Benchmarking Report, says the use of AI and machine learning in anti-fraud programs is expected to more than double over the next two years. It notes state government agencies reported a median of $91,000 in fraud losses in 2020 and local government entities $75,000, and recommends county finance teams use data sources such as exception reporting, policy violations and predictive analytics to identify fraud risk.
SAP Concur published a blog post discussing how travel managers can embrace change with agility. The article notes that organizations face frequent changes in business standards, the economy, and political environments, requiring a flexible mindset. Travel and expense management needs to adapt to digital disruption, adopt traveler-centric programs, and leverage technology to improve employee safety and satisfaction. The article also interviews John Coovert, VP of Global Physical Security at SAP, on how SAP uses tools like Concur Travel & Expense, TripLink, and TripIt to monitor global employee travel.
This SAP Concur blog post emphasizes combining accounts payable processes with fintech tools for successful spend management. It highlights how the pandemic drove companies to digitize invoice management, and introduces Concur Invoice integrated with payment provider solutions to automate end-to-end processes, offering control, data insights, spend maximization, security, and innovation without development costs.
This SAP Concur blog post discusses how businesses can use time efficiently, emphasizing the importance of digital technology for SME growth. It cites research that 53-60% of SMEs say new technology solutions have improved workflows. The article recommends investing in digital tools like automated travel and expense management to save time and boost productivity.